Rose for Emily Essay

Reflective Essay Writing
Topic: Discuss about the four men who might be responsible for Emily’s
isolation from the world outside?
Reading a story “A Rose for Emily” that was written by William Faulkner, we could see easily that
there are four men who might be responsible for Emily’s isolation from the world outside. So, who
are they and what did they do? Looking at every side around these characters, we would find out the
answer about Emily’s life.
Nguyễn Anh Tâm Trang
There are many characters might be responsible for Emily's isolation from the world outside. And
the first men I want to talk about is her father. This is a character who was not present in the story,
but he was portrayed as a haunting and overprotective figure over Emily's life. At this story, we can
see he refused all young men who came to propose Emily. When Emily could have found a
husband, could have a life of her own, he said: "No, you must stay here and take care of me". In his
eyes, no one is suitable to be Emily's husband, because they belonged to the lower class. He stole
away Emily's happiness; he also blindly taught Emily that she belonged to the upper class, so she
had to avoid having any acquaintance with the normal people. Therefore, after the death of her
father, she still always not change her way of thinking towards people around her. Therefore, we can
say, her father has a big influence on her life. In addition, through the picture of him, a picture draw
about him with a hand hold a riding crop and stared her, it's mean that his authority still controlled
Emily to the rest of her life even after his death.
Lâm Thị Liên
The next person is Homer Barron- a large Northman. He became Emily's lover after her father died.
She abandoned herself to grief, loneliness after her father death. But when she met Homer, she
started to wanna go out, go on living because she thought that Homer would be the one who helped
her to stand up and found the true joy in the life. Unfortunately, Homer is not a marrying man like
she hoped, he did not love her and deceived her. Emily couldn't accept this truth, therefore, in
despair, she killed him, she wanted to possess him forever even in dead, just his body not heart.


From that, she rarely went out again; she turned back to the reclusive living in the past. Actually,
Homer Barron had also contributed to Emily's isolation from the world outside.

Nguyễn Thị Diệu Nga
The man who might be a contributing factor for Emily's isolation from the world outside is the
Colonel Sartoris who belonged to contemporary generation of Emily's father. He remitted tax for
Emily, which declared that Emily represented the "Old South"- the upper class in Southern society.
He should have let Emily work as townspeople to pay money for tax so that she stops living in an
illusion. However he respected Emily and he wanted to protect the monument-Emily is the last
person of aristocratic family. Hence, she avoided getting close relationships with neighbors and
other people outside her house.
Vũ Thị Ngọc Duyên
The last man who might be responsibility for Emily's isolation is the Nergo man - Tobe. This man
appear in the story as a loyal manservant who did everything for Emily such as doing the gardening,
cooking and going to the market to buy food for her. Emily did not have to do anything by herself.
Even he helped contribute to hide Barron's corpse for her. As a man who is assumed to know what
is right and what is wrong. The Nergo man should have told Emily the truth. That is the world
outside has changed, her father died, her lover did not love her and so on and advised her to go out
to participate in the society and to change her lifestyle completely. But he did not do like that.
Therefore, he should be charged responsible for Emily's alienation and wrong-doing action.
Nguyễn Thị Mỹ Linh
It’s no doubt that these men are also a factor that played an important role in building and
developing Emily’s character. On the other hand, these characters are also representative for things
that taking the youth and even freedom of a beautiful girl as Emily. In a word, William Faulkner
was very successful when using men, such as: Emily’s father, Homer Barron,… to describe
skillfully for the main character-Emily. Everything seem to become too perfect to the story was
really touching to the heart of millions reader.
Nguyễn Anh Tâm Trang